The Letters Page #7

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So, we have to be up early in the morning.

We must get some-some rest.

Good night. Yes.

And-

And we have much work to do.

We must be up very early in the morning.

- Are you going to be okay?

- Yes, yes.

We must get some rest now.

Go to bed.

Good night, Mother.

(door closes)

(men shouting)

Mother? Mother?

Hmm.

I don't know if you remember me.

I remember you, Mr. Widdecombe.

Yes. If you have a minute,

I'd like to have a word with you.

As you can see, Mr. Widdecombe,

we're very busy here today.

- It's not good time.

- But it would only take a few minutes.

There are so many people

interested in knowing more about you.

Mr. Widdecombe, it's not about me.

I'm just doing Gods work.

Yes, well, can we talk about

the work you're doing here then?

Well, What we are doing here

is setting up a home

Where people who are dying on the streets

can be brought in so they can die

with loving faces around them.

Wait. Mother Teresa,

if you would just hold up for a moment-

Mr. Widdecombe, getting interview with me

is waste of your time.

Hmm?

Look outside.

Come. Hmm?

The poor are everywhere.

Write about them.

That's the important story.

I'm just an instrument.

Yes, but the people Want to hear about you.

Are you going to change to television,

Mr. Widdecombe?

I hear it's very big in England now,

maybe going to take over radio.

That will never happen,

and I will never be a television reporter.

This is not good. Let's start again.

(angry chattering)

(engine starts)

VAN EXEM:
Archbishop Prier and I

had been getting letters

from Mother Teresa.

And those letters

kept getting darker and darker,

revealing her spiritual darkness

was growing.

And getting news like What she had gotten

from the Albanian government

certainly didn't help.

But she seemed cheerful in her daily life

and tireless in her work.

But inside-

(sighs) inside she was experiencing

a terrible emptiness.

The feeling that she had been abandoned

by God.

Nathan, can you hear me?

We have a pretty bad connection.

I can hear you, Graham.

It's the Way it always is.

Okay, just say when.

Go ahead. Anytime.

This is a somewhat unusual story

from What you are used to me reporting,

as I am normally on assignment

as a war correspondent.

But here in Calcutta,

there is a growing awareness

of a Catholic nun who has been

doing charity work with the poor

that has caught the attention of everyone,

from the local municipal authorities here

to the Vatican in Rome.

Her name is Mother Teresa,

and she has a growing number of followers

in her new congregation

known as the Missionaries of Charity,

erected just two years ago

by the Catholic church.

Whats unusual about her is she won't

grant me or anyone else an interview,

believing that she is an instrument of God

and doing his work.

She refuses to take any form of credit.

To the locals in the poorest sections

of this city, she is a saint.

But to a certain segment

of the Hindu population here,

she has come under fire, if not threat,

as she has set up a home for the dying

in one of their abandoned temples,

housing given to her

by the local municipal authority.

- Mother, it's getting worse out there.

- I know.

But I don't really think

they'll do anything. Come.

But do you think we should get word out

to the municipal authority?

- (shouting in Bengali)

- (cheering)

How are you today'?

Why are you helping me?

(coughing)

I am Hindu.

Because in you, I see Jesus.

And I love you as God loves you.

Now lie clown.

(angry shouting)

You just keep Working.

Hmm?

Mother?

Mother, you can't go out there.

It's not safe for you.

Mother!

- I'm going to speak to them.

- No, Mother. Wait.

- Please wait.

- Mother.

Mother, please don't go outside.

We need to summon help.

I agree with Sister Agnes, Mother.

The situation outside

has got out of control.

We need to get some help.

Please don't go out. Please. Please.

(shouting continues)

(crowd quiets)

You are to leave this temple now!

(shouting resumes)

This is our temple, our sacred place!

You are desecrating it with your god!

Please. Please.

Municipal authority

told us that we could use this temple.

But if it is problem for you us being here,

you should talk to municipality.

This place is the holiest place for us!

- Hindus!

- (shouting)

You are not Welcome here!

What you are doing here?

You are Hindu!

There is death in there!

It is impure in there!

What's going on here?

This Christian woman,

she is to leave this temple how!

Silence! Quiet!

And why is she to leave?

She does not belong in our temple!

(shouts)

It is this Christian Woman

who is taking care of our dying.

If you took care

of those who are dying in our streets,

perhaps municipality would not

have given her our temple!

That does not matter!

She is to leave this temple now!

It is you who has to leave.

All of you, go home!

The health officer has given these people

this abandoned temple.

It is not a matter for you to decide.

You will leave immediately, or else I will

summon the municipal authority

and the commissioner of police!

Now go home!

Go!

VAN EXEM:
Mother didn't have any more

trouble with the locals after that.

The incident marked the beginning

of a lifelong relationship with them

and her love for them.

Shankarsinh, could you

please help me to take-

Put it over there. It's so heavy.

Mother's-her trouble with

the locals might have ended,

but her spiritual suffering had not.

There are letters from her in this box

that give clear proof.

Of course, she would not show her sense of

loss to the young nuns in the order.

And it was Mother's wish

that no one read these letters.

She Wanted them destroyed.

But the darkness she lived with

was an essential element of who she was,

and her letters document

What she Went through.

You are the postulator

for her cause for sainthood, and I-

I want you to read these letters.

There is no stronger testimony

to her holiness,

to her worthiness of sainthood.

And should these letters

one day be made public,

many people who go through similar trials

will benefit from them.

I have been charged

with the task of postulator for the cause

of beatification and canonization

of Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

In the years since I began my research,

I have gathered documents

and testimony which have led me

to a conclusion.

She possessed depths of holiness

far deeper than any of us

might have imagined.

As you know, I have been given letters.

Letters that she wrote

to her spiritual advisers,

among them Archbishop of Calcutta

Ferdinand Prier

and Father Celeste Van Exem,

her spiritual adviser.

The letters contain information

that document her worthiness

of canonization.

The reality of her life was this-

she suffered greatly,

stemming from her belief that

she had been abandoned by God.

Little was known about

her spiritual burdens

or her personal struggles

until these letters became available.

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